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“This whole affair stinks like a cheap made-for-TV,” observes a cynical podcaster midway through the chilling follow-up Influencers. In the moment, he’s being manipulatively dismissive toward an interviewee with an outlandish story he previously claimed he believed. But his description of what’s happening in the movie isn’t wrong. On its face, two streaming movies chronicling a woman who worms her way into the lives of online influencers and then murders them seems like the 21st-century equivalent of a lurid yet cable-ready Movie of the Week. The surprising aspect regarding Influencers is just how superior it proves to be compared to much of its competition, irrespective of where you watch it. It is precisely the thriller capable of giving its peers a bad case of FOMO.

Revisiting the First Film and Establishing the Scene

The 2022 film Influencer tracks the mysterious CW (Cassandra Naud) as she methodically selects traveling alone influencer targets, lures them to their deaths, and covers up those murders (for a time) by taking control of their online accounts. The movie concludes (spoiler ahead) with CW stranded on a deserted island near the coast of Thailand, after her latest target, Madison (Emily Tennant), turns the tables on her.

This lends 2025's Influencers some early mystery, as returning writer-director the director picks up with the character CW happily living with her girlfriend Diane (Lisa Delamar) in Paris. On a journey marking their first anniversary, UK-based influencer Charlotte (Georgina Campbell) catches CW’s eye and anger.

CW comments to her partner that a person should try leaving a phone-addicted online personality in a place with no technology to see whether they can make it. Is this a backstory prequel? Was CW radicalized by seeing the special treatment afforded a single clout-chaser?

Shifting Perspectives and International Chases

The narrative viewpoint shifts several more times, eventually clarifying those introductory moments' chronological position. Harder catches up with Madison, now exonerated for committing CW’s crimes, yet still encounters suspicion over her version of what happened, including the murder of Madison’s boyfriend. We also follow Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell), living in Bali and trying to boost his profile as half of a conservative-influencer duo with Ariana (Veronica Long), although his chosen platform involves masculine-focused livestreams, as opposed to the curated images that normally attract CW's interest.

The actor continues to be terrifically magnetic in the part, which seems especially tailor-made to her strengths. (She even created CW's striking outfits.) Although the sequel’s screentime balance tips heavily toward CW — the first film seemed more balanced between the two women — it still works as a story of dueling investigators, as Madison and CW employ fake accounts, social media surveillance, and a seemingly limitless travel fund to chase or evade each other. Of course, maybe the vast resources isn’t necessary. Influencers have a knack for gaining access to luxurious locales without paying much, an ability that CW echoes with her more overt scamming.

Resourceful Production and Visual Wanderlust

The filmmakers behind Influencers seem similarly resourceful in locating beautiful places to visit, although they were likely less nefarious about it. Most of the film seems to be filmed in real places, providing it an authentic gravity that lingers even when many scenes consist of a handful of actors of people staring at computer or phone screens.

It follows the same logic that made the James Bond movies look so persistently lavish over the years: Indeed, big action and visual effects can show off a big budget, but just providing a kind of visual tour for the audience also feels deeply filmic. This is particularly appropriate for a narrative so rooted in the coexisting superficial glamour and desperate hustle involved in producing envy-inducing digital content.

Every character visiting Bali, like those staying in Thailand in the original, seem to have access to unbelievably stylish contemporary villas; there are movies concerning beach rescuers that don’t show off this much aerial pool video. These individuals have to convincingly occupy these luxurious, remote places to highlight the uncomfortable paradox of how often each person — including the woman wreaking vengeance upon the online stars' self-centered phoniness — nevertheless spends plenty of time under the light of their devices.

Balanced Depictions and Tech-Savvy Tension

Simultaneously, Harder hasn’t authored a screed against the emptiness of online fame. Though it can be gratifying to see CW manipulate various online personalities, and a Hitchcockian sense of alignment allows us to wish she doesn’t get caught, Harder is relatively sympathetic to the major influencer characters. Previously, he tapped into the isolation Madison felt while on ostensibly dream getaways. In this film, the director appears confident that just observing Jacob in action will reveal that he’s peddling snake-oil masculinity to other gullible men; he resists turning into a caricature the character. He even gives Jacob a measure of dignity by showing his genuine loyalty to his girlfriend; he is two-faced, yet Ariana is a collaborator in his double standards, not a victim by it.

The other side of this balanced approach means it can sometimes appear that he is acknowledging bits of modern online life without deeply exploring them. This is especially true of the way he introduces artificial intelligence into the story, a fascinating turn which misses the psychosexual kick it should have. The retitled sequel for the film might give devotees of the original hope for an Aliens-style escalation, and the movie does eventually provide exactly that, with a suitably wild final act. However, initially, it resembles more a polished Hitchcock thriller than a frenzied, technology-obsessed Brian De Palma thriller. Influencers’ extensive use of real-world locations might also be what keeps it from seeming like pure nightmare fuel. The world might be saturated with always-online creators, online fraud, and exploitative travel, but the world itself is still here, for now.